Smaller than milliseconds?

[Ray G. Miller]

> From: Nelson Zink <zink at newmex.com>


> Microseconds? Now we're talkin'.
> 
> OK, here's the deal:
> A high quality Random Number Generator (RNG) needs two things: a good seed
> and a clever algorithm to turn the seed into pattern-less numbers.
<snip>

Nelson,
Just running Dar's script with a pause between clicks, I got (Scott, 
avert your eyes or you'll get another haedache):

the long seconds: 1057947474.546898 delta: 0.000007
the ticks: 63476848472 delta: 0
the milliseconds: 1057947474549 delta: 0
the long ticks: 63476848473.015358 delta: 0.000359
the long milliseconds: 1057947474551.332031 delta: 0.005005

the long seconds: 1057948125.980394 delta: 0.000011
the ticks: 63476887558 delta: 0
the milliseconds: 1057948125983 delta: 0
the long ticks: 63476887559.09742 delta: 0.000298
the long milliseconds: 1057948125986.495972 delta: 0.005005

the long seconds: 1057948145.708382 delta: 0.000013
the ticks: 63476888742 delta: 0
the milliseconds: 1057948145711 delta: 0
the long ticks: 63476888742.800217 delta: 0.000359
the long milliseconds: 1057948145714.977051 delta: 0.005005

the long seconds and the long ticks did generate a delta, but the long 
millseconds did not.

> So, compute something meaningless like deriving God's last name (about a
> half second)

(I got "Yenarttocs" for god's last name. What did you get?)

> and use the run time as a good unpredictable seed for the rest
> of the RNG. Thus it would be possible to have a high quality RNG based in
> software alone.
> 



> Also:
> set the numberformat to "0.00000000000000000000"
> put the long seconds
> 
> Punches up the fraction with digits other than zeros, where they come from I
> don't know.
> 

I got:

1057948791.84405899047851562500
1057948800.13185596466064453125
1057948801.46816802024841308594
1057948807.55658400058746337891
1057948808.14822602272033691406
1057948819.56501805782318115234

Adding three more zeros yielded:
1057948840.14027500152587890625000
1057948841.41388595104217529296880
1057948842.74860799312591552734380
1057948848.56447696685791015625000
1057948852.67774403095245361328120
1057948979.99965500831604003906250
1057948984.09295594692230224609380
1057948985.36483705043792724609380
1057948998.36404299736022949218750
1057948999.02833700180053710937500

The last three digits seem to be repeating...

Scott,

Ray G. Miller
__________________
Turtlelips Productions
4009 Everett Ave.
Oakland, CA 94602
MailTo:rgmiller at pacbell.net
(V) 510.530.1971
(F) 510.482.3491